Among the existing rules, rule ISO14.001—Environmental Management System—has been created to help public or private companies to identify, prioritize and manage their environmental risks as part of their usual practices. Rule ISO14.001 requires the companies to undertake to prevent pollution and make continuous improvements, as a part of each normal cycle of company management. The strict follow-up of each step of the operational manufacture process is a compulsory procedure to guarantee the balance of the environment and the continuous improvement of life quality.
The offset printing machines use an aluminum plate having an engraved image, which serves as a matrix for printing. This aluminum plate is fixed to the printer cylinder, and the latter, upon turning, enables the plate to be loaded with ink in the image area (oleophilic area) when it passes through the inking rollers and then to retain water in the non-image area (hydrophilic area) in contacting the so-called “wetting” cylinders, which remain immersed in an aqueous solution called strong solution. The ink of the image area is transferred to a special rubber web fixed to the other cylinder that carries the ink to the paper.
The process of using planographic printing matrices on an aluminum substrate generates industrial waste that today forces the graphic industry to segregate and pay for the correct disposal thereof. The developers are the great villains, because they have an extremely alkaline pH and cannot be discarded without due treatment for pH neutralization. Each offset plate or planographic printing matrix is determined by the photographic sensitiveness to a determined source of light, which may come from one of the following spectral ranges: Thermal or Infrared range (800˜830 nm), Violet (405˜410 nm) or Ultraviolet (<400 nm) range.
At present, on the market there are plates sensitive to UV (ultraviolet) radiation of the spectrum (320 nm), called conventional (analog), plates sensitive to infrared radiation of the spectrum (830 nm), called digital (thermal plates), and plates sensitive to violet radiation of the spectrum (410 nm), called photopolymer. In general, in processing said plates to obtain the desired image, one uses developers containing aggressive chemical products and high pH (higher than 12) or organic solvents associated to surfactants.
There are on the market plates sensitive to radiation ranging from 405 to 410 nm of the radiation spectrum, according to patent application EP1349006 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,955,776, but, in order to obtain the desired image in processing said plates, one employs alkaline developers (pH>13) including a preliminary treatment step comprising washing with water to remove the second protective layer, thus enabling the adequate action of the developer to solubilize the non-exposed areas.
As other examples of printing plates that use, as a developer, an alkaline solution, there are those contained in the Brazilian patent applications PI0400607-0 and PI0109106-9.
Patent application PI0400607-0 discloses a photosensitive composition exhibiting enhanced sensitivity, comprising an ethylenically unsaturated monomer, a photopolymerization initiator composition and a polymer binder. A lithographic printing plate is also disclosed, which comprises the photosensitive composition cited before on a support having a hydrophilic surface. The disclosure of the printing plate is carried out by using an aqueous alkaline developing solution that exhibits preferably a pH of 8.5 to 12.5.
Patent application PI0109106-9 discloses a photosensitive composition that can be applied to photosensitive planographic printing plates and to photoresistant materials. More particularly, the present document refers to a photosensitive composition that provides a coating film having excellent resistance to solvents and wear resistance, and to a photosensitive planographic printing plate having excellent resistance to solvent and the useful life of the printer that uses it. The present document cites, as an example of developer for developing said planographic printing plate, an alkaline aqueous solution (basic aqueous solution).
Therefore, it becomes necessary to develop layers sensitive to radiation in regions of the electromagnetic spectrum applied to aluminum substrates for offset printing, wherein the image-forming process uses ecologically adequate or correct products, known on the market as washing and protecting solution, thus preventing the user of the printing plate to have financial expenditures with the adequate disposal of the chemical products used in processing the plates, be they analog, digital or photopolymer, which are usually toxic and corrosive.